Garlic, an economically important vegetable, spice, and medicinal crop, produces highly enlarged bulbs and unique organosulfur compounds. Here, we report a chromosome-level genome assembly for garlic, with a total size of approximately 16.24 Gb, as well as the annotation of 57 561 predicted protein-coding genes, making garlic the first Allium species with a sequenced genome. Analysis of this garlic genome assembly reveals a recent burst of transposable elements, explaining the substantial expansion of the garlic genome. We examined the evolution of certain genes associated with the biosynthesis of allicin and inulin neoseries-type fructans, and provided new insights into the biosynthesis of these two compounds. Furthermore, a large-scale transcriptome was produced to characterize the expression patterns of garlic genes in different tissues and at various growth stages of enlarged bulbs. The reference genome and large-scale transcriptome data generated in this study provide valuable new resources for research on garlic biology and breeding.

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Plants are one of the best sources to obtain a variety of natural surfactants in the field of green synthesizing material. Sambucus ebulus, which has unique natural properties, has been considered a promising material in traditional Asian medicine. In this context, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) were prepared using S. ebulus leaf extract, and their physicochemical properties were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed that the prepared ZnO NPs are highly crystalline, having a wurtzite crystal structure. The average crystallite size of prepared NPs was around 17 nm. Green synthesized NPs showed excellent absorption in the UV region as well as strong yellow-orange emission at room temperature. Prepared nanoparticles exhibited good antibacterial activity against various organisms and a passable photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye pollutants. The obtained results demonstrated that the biosynthesized ZnO NPs reveal interesting characteristics for various potential applications in the future.

Alles klickt zusammen: Mittels kupferfreier 1,3‐dipolarer Cycloaddition einer Serie von Alkin‐ und Azid‐Bausteinen mit einer nicht‐Watson‐Crick‐artigen DNA‐Sekundärstruktur als Katalysator gelang die Identifizierung einer potenten Telomer‐erkennenden niedermolekularen Verbindung (siehe Bild). Die Methode ist allgemein anwendbar und liefert niedermolekulare Sonden, die selektiv zwischen einer gegebenen RNA oder DNA unterscheiden können.